Seal



Oct. 15, 1957 v s, M, MOBERG 2,809,859

' SEAL Filed Jan. 31, 1956 I N V EN TOR: 5 60/80 MMaai/ee United States Patent Ofice SEAL Application January 31, 1956, Serial No. 562,487

1 Claim. (Cl. 292-308) This invention relates to seals for use with cords or wires (hereinafterreferred to for convenience merely as wires in this specification and in the accompanying claim) to fasten ends or other portions of wires together in such manner that they cannot be separated and then refastened with the same seal. The invention is illustrated and described herein as used with a wire for holding a bolt head or heads against turning without, however, limiting the invention to that particular purpose.

An important object of this invention is to provide a seal made, preferably, of sheet or strip aluminum or other material suitable to the mode of manufacture and of use of the seals as hereinafter set forth.

Another important object is the provision of a seal which will break if any attempt is made to tamper with it or may be broken easily in normal, authorized usage; yet will resist unintended or accidental breakage.

Another important object is the provision of a seal wherein such breakage is localized at a predetermined line or area without employing scoring of the seal which could engender undesired or accidental breakage.

Another important object is the provision of such a seal for wire, having openings amply large for receiving the wire portions but adapted to contract circumferentially to some'extent about such wire portions when compressed or crimped by a suitable sealing tool.

Another important object is the provision of such a seal which may be inexpensively produced and very easily used.

The foregoing and other more or less obvious objects are accomplished according to this invention by forming a flat piece of sheet or strip material such as aluminum or other suitable material to provide parallel coiled portions at opposite edges and an intervening ridge formed by bending the material at a sharp enough angle to constitute the ridge as a localized area at which the seal will break in the presence of material forced swinging of one coiled portion relatively to the other coiled portion.

Only a single embodiment of the invention is shown and described herein for illustrative purposes without, however, limiting the invention to that particular embodiment.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a seal according to a preferred embodiment of the invention and, juxtaposed thereto, a wire in position to be inserted endwisely into the seal.

Figs. 2 and 3 are perspective views showing two ways in which the seal may be associated with wires strung through a series of boltheads; the seals in these views being crimped tightly upon the wires.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a crimped seal after having been broken along a line or area of weakness.

The illustrated seal comprises a preferably rectangular piece of sheet material, such as aluminum, of a suitable size, formed by suitable dies or tools approximately to the shape shown in Fig. 1, with substantially parallel and similar coiled portions 12 at opposite edges of the 2,809,859 Patented Oct. 15, 1957 V v 2 piece 10 and an intervening ridge 14. Opposite sides 16 of the ridge are in acute relative angularity and inner margins 18 of the coiled portions 12 are preferably graduated to what might be termed blunt knife edges, one of which is shown at 20.

In use, a wire 22 may be threaded through transverse holes provided for the purpose in a series of heads 24 of bolts, the stems of which, in a. manner not shown but well understood, extend into a piece of machinery to hold parts thereof together. The ends of the wire maybe introduced endwisely into and preferably through the coiled portions 12, either from corresponding ends of the seal as in Fig. 2;. or from, opposite ends of the seal as in Fig. 3, whereafter the coiled portions 12 are crimped tightly upon the wire as at 26 by a'sealing tool having a die or dies therein which, preferably, deform and crimp the said coiled portions tightly upon the wire without materially deforming the ridge 14. Some deformation of the ridge may be tolerated but should be minimized to facilitate the functioning of the seal as hereinafter described.

By comparison of Fig. l with the other figures of the drawing, it may be observed that, when the coiled portions 12 are crimped upon the wire, they may coil somewhat more tightly about the wire before the crimping operation is completed. This is facilitated by the knife edges 20 and the adjoining graduated margins 18 because, as the edges 20 are directed at very acute angles relatively to the adjacent surface of the sheet material of which the device is made, those edges have no tendency to dig into the sheet material; hence, no tendency to inhibit further coiling of the portions 12. This further coiling, also, is facilitated by reason of the fact that the graduated margins 18 slide quite freely upon the adjacent surface of the sheet material. It should be noted, also, that the edges 20 lie intimately against the inside surfaces of coiled portions 12; hence, they do not dig into the wire. If said edges were as thick as the sheet material rather than blunt or dull knife edges, they would tend to dig into the wire and weaken it.

This invention takes advantage of a principle which is quite generally known but which is believed not to have been used in seals of the character disclosed herein. That principle is that, if sheet material such as aluminum is given an initial sharp angular bend, then further bending in that area becomes localized at the initial bend and, if pursued, will cause breakage at the line of the initial bend. On the other hand, if such sheet material is only given a mild initial bend (i. e., about a substantial radius) or is given no initial bend, then subsequent bending may take place to a considerable extent without material localization and, hence, without breakage.

Breakage under certain conditions is desirable in seals such as are disclosed herein for two reasons, (1) to frustrate attempts at tampering with the seal, and (2) to permit its easy removal by authorized persons. On the other hand, if scoring of the sheet material were employed instead of the ridge 14 between the coiled portions 12, then the seal could accidentally become broken.

If an interloper were to attempt to open the presently disclosed seal and then recrimp it, he would have to uncoil, substantially, one of the coiled portions 12. An attempt to do this would subject the ridge 14 to such strain as to bend and break it substantially as shown in Fig. 4, whereafter the interloper, without a new seal and a suitable sealing tool, could not restore the sealed wire to its original condition and could not conceal the fact that tampering had occurred. Such tampering could be detrimental as where an attempt were made to sabotage a machine or where theft may be attempted of goods protected by such a seal. Of course, if an authorized person wishes to remove such a seal, he may simply clip the sealed wire or, if the'crimped' seal is not as accessible to a cutting tool as may be desired, he can, with pliers or the like, bend the portions 12 relatively to each other to break the seal as in Fig. 4 after which the se led wire may more easily be cut, l 1

-Those using seals accordingto this inven ion may, if

desired, dies in the 's'ealing tool which will 'impress letters, nurnbers, or other 'identiiying characters *on the crimped portions of the seal as shown at Z8. V

It should be obvious that the present inventive concept may be utilized in various other ways without, however, departing from the invention 'as setforth in the following claim.

I claim: 7 t

A e o ntwQnn fins w W rtion m r ing a piece of deformable, substantiallg'in'elastic sheet mat a f sl s ant al y Uni m thi 9isshavi9 on at opposite side marginal partis' thereoiflfor separately receiving said wire portions endwisely therein and adapted to be crimped to lock said wire portions therewithin, a connecting portion between and interconnecting said coils, and a bend, in said connecting portion, adapted to localize any further bending of the sheet material between the said coils; said bend being parallel to said coils and terminating at opposite edges of said connecting portion whereby to avoid impediment to bending of the seal at said bend; said bend, in transverse section, extending from the bottom portions of the coils to a plane coincid atiwith he op portion o s i o ls d he pex o the ridge being materially spaced from said top portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent U I nD STATES PATENTS 235,668 Brooks Dec. 21, 1880 745,036 Brooks Nov. 24, 1903 1,219,075 Brooks Mar. 13, 1917 1,537,741 Brooks May 12, 1925 

